Seeing Through The Haze
by DisguisedasInnocent
Summary: Set in Season One, Purple Haze. With all the inhabitants of Eureka acting strangely Zoe's first priority is fleeing the school that had transformed into a normal school. Right into the arms of the Deputy Sheriff who isn't acting quite right either.


**Author's Note: This is set back in the first season of Eureka, because I was re-watching the DVDs recently and the idea for this just kind of bite me and wouldn't go away. Please feel free to message and tell me what you think, any constructive criticism that you have is greatly appreciated. Thank you, and enjoy.**

**

* * *

**Jo shook her head for a moment; the images that were invading her conscious mind from her subconscious just couldn't be allowed to stay there or else she would be forced to think about them for the rest of the day – she would be forced to do something about them, and that just wasn't possible. Looking into the mirror the brown haired law enforcement officer combed her fingers through her hair for a moment, loving the way that the strands fell through her fingers and fluttered around her shoulders. It was a lot nicer being able to do that than having the tightness of the bun on the back of her head pulling at the roots of those strands for all the hours that she worked, snapping a hair tie onto the her the wrist the Deputy stepped away from the mirror – her hair flowing around her shoulders freely.

"Doing something new with your hair?" Jo's boss, Sheriff Carter asked with his usual boyish smile glued to his lips. Jo could see why so many of the Eureka crowd were attracted to the man – she pondered to herself that if she were actually attracted to men then she would be attracted to him as well, but she wasn't.

"Yeah," The Deputy replied idly glancing up from her magazine, placing her chewing gum down on its wrapper on her desk before continuing, "I just couldn't be bothered to put it up today, there's no law against that right?"

"No!" Carter exclaimed loudly. He had been through so many similar things with women before that the next words out of his mouth were automatic; it didn't make them any less true though. "It looks good like that Jo."

"Thank you." The woman's smile was large; it spread across her lips until it threatened to take over her entire face. It was that moment that the Sheriff decided that his Deputy should be made to smile more often, because it enhanced her usual serene beauty.

As the day passed by the strange events that occurred around Eureka racked up to an even higher number than usual, leaving the Sheriff run off his feet – especially when he tried to keep Jo from doing something crazy and instead made her do her job.

However all thoughts of work flew out of the Deputy's mind when she saw who was calling her mobile. A smile spread across her lips again as she pressed accept and brought the tiny little device up to her ear and answered in a soft, almost seductive tone.

"Hello Zoe," She whispered, her tongue flicking out over her bottom lip as she spoke, the smile bright and happy. "What's up?"

"Everything wrong at school; the students are making out in the hallways, and the teachers, well, they just don't seem to care about it at all!" The teenager exclaimed loudly, almost causing the brunette to wince at her volume before she stopped herself and instead calmly answered the girl's words; smiling at the fact the plan forming in her head would allow her to see the girl.

"Alright, get yourself out of the school, meet me by the front entrance; I'll be there to pick you up in around ten minutes that sound alright to you Zoe?" The brunette asked softly, her legs already working to bring her out of the Sheriff's office and powering her towards her car.

"Yes, thank you Jo." The teenager replied gently. Jo could hear the smile in the blonde's voice as she spoke, and she knew then that she was doing the right thing by taking the girl out of the school - though she knew that Jack was going to be mad at her when he found out what she did.

The engine of Jo's Jeep roared loudly, almost fiercely as she pressed down on the accelerator forcing the car to speed up as it took her towards where the scared blonde haired girl was waiting. In the distance the brunette could see the girl standing beside the front entrance of the school, rocking backwards and forwards on her heels as she tried to spot where the brunette was. There was a boy stood beside her; he had his arm moving so that he could touch the blonde's firm behind but he never even got anywhere close as the blonde had elbowed him in the gut and ran as soon as she had spotted Jo's Jeep approaching.

"Oh thank god you are here." She cried out in relief, tugging the passenger side door open and pulling herself into the front of the Jeep as she did so.

However the brunette's eyes were not looking at what the blonde was doing, instead she was glaring in the direction of the boy who was by now picking himself off the ground. "Did he do anything to you?"

"James? No," Relief made the Deputy exhale harshly, "He just tried to touch me up a little, nothing major, and he got an elbow in the gut for that."

Zoe seemed almost proud of herself as she spoke, and that made the brunette happy. She loved to see the smile spreading over Zoe's lips whenever she did something that she deemed to be good and worthy of praise. Jack Carter didn't understand sometimes that the blonde haired girl did everything that she did because she wanted attention - she would be good if he gave her the attention that she thought she deserved, but the only times she had been able to get that before was when she ran away from home - or when she broke the law. Those were the times that Jack Carter gave his daughter his attention, normally; she wasn't even on his radar when they were living in L.A.

"Don't worry," Jo murmured softly; her eyes sparkled with happiness and love as she looked down at the young blonde haired Carter.

When the two Carters arrived in Eureka the Deputy had been sure that they wouldn't fit in, but the more that they interacted with the town the more that she began to see the ways in which they were exactly what Eureka needed. Jack Carter was the perfect Sheriff, because he wasn't a genius it meant that he could see things in a different way to the rest of the community – he could see things in a simpler way. It was Zoe however that changed Jo's life. The Deputy had felt herself growing more and more attached to the other girl as they got to know more about one another, until Jo was the one that Zoe called when she was in trouble and needed someone to help her.

It didn't take Jo long to make it to the Carter's home – with her powerful Jeep and the fact she was disobeying all the traffic laws she made it from the girl's school to the Carter Bunker in a little under fifteen minutes. The blonde eased herself out of the side of the Jeep, working hard not to stumble as she did so, the ground uneven beneath her feet. Jo's strong arm wrapped around her waist, holding her against the Deputy's toned side firmly, making sure that she didn't fall.

Jo could feel her heart beating faster and faster inside her chest – the want for the young blonde welling up until she was sure that it was going to spill over.

"SARAH, open the door please." Zoe spoke softly, watching at the thick iron door slide out of its firm seal quickly, a whooshing sound coming seconds later as the air flowed out of the sealed bunker before the door swung entirely open.

"Good afternoon Zoe, may I ask what you are doing home from school so early?" The house spoke; even though it was a female version of Fargo's voice there was something in SARAH's programming that made her able to distinguish between different emotions, and adapt her voice accordingly. At the moment the house was properly displaying the emotions of concern, but there was a hint of disapproval because she thought that Zoe was just breaking the rules and coming home because she wasn't interested in school.

However as soon as Jo stepped through the threshold of the house as well and the door slid closed the house's questions turned in a slightly different direction, because she was sure that the Deputy Sheriff wouldn't have allowed Zoe to come home unless something really was wrong.

"Jo?" SARAH questioned softly, "What is happening?"

The brunette shook her head for a moment, before she just repeated what Jack had been saying all day, "Something is wrong with the people, they're acting strangely for some reason..."

Jo trailed off as she thought about what she had just said, and the images that she had been having of leaning forward and pressing her lips against the young blonde's, her body moved without her consent for a moment stepping towards Zoe until she was in the girl's personal space and suddenly her head leaned done and she was pressing her lips to the blonde's softly.

Startled blue eyes blinked rapidly as she tried to understand what was going on. Jo Lupo, the Deputy Sheriff of the town of Eureka, home to numerous geniuses and their experiments. Controlled Jo Lupo, in charge Jo Lupo, female Jo Lupo - had just leaned down and kissed her, and she was kissing back. Unknown to herself Zoe's arms wrapped around the Deputy's waist, fingers clawing at the back of her shirt as her eyes slid closed - subconsciously she knew that she was safe with Jo and that nothing was going to hurt her as long as she was with the brunette. However it wasn't just that which had her pressing her body firmly against the brunette's; it was the almost overwhelming attraction she'd held for the woman that had her pressing herself to the Deputy's body, holding on as if this was her last chance.

When she had arrived in Eureka the blonde had known that she was attracted to the strong female Deputy; she had known that when she was watching the brunette as she lay on the little bed in the cell, when she was watching the woman's fingers work over the guns caressing them softly and gently but instead imagining that those same hands were running over her flesh inside and she was watching as the brunette caressed down her sides, she had known. She had known she was attracted to the brunette, but she had also known that as long as Jo was in her right mind there was nothing that would happen between them.

Gasping for breath the blonde ripped herself away from the brunette, "You've been affected... you've been affected."

"Zoe, why'd you stop?" Jo asked, stepping forward towards the blonde again and gripping her shoulders tightly. "I want you."

"Please Jo," Zoe whimpered, her eyes filling with tears as she wrenched herself away from the brunette, "I'm not doing this with you, not while you're not yourself... please, just leave."

Tears slid out of the blonde haired Carter's eyes as she watched the regret and the sadness spreading over Jo's face - she didn't want to tell the woman no, but she had to, because she knew that if Jo remembered what she had done to her when she wasn't herself she would never have been able to face the blonde again, and Zoe couldn't stand that thought.

"I love you Jo Lupo..." She whispered softly just as the door to the bunker slid closed, and then her tears fell.

"Zoe?" SARAH questioned softly, "Do you know what is happening to the town's inhabitants? That was not characteristic behaviour that the Deputy Sheriff just displayed, but there doesn't seem to be against wrong with her."

"I don't know what it is…" The blonde replied, wiping her cheeks to get rid of her tears, her phone buzzing loudly in her pocket as she finished speaking.

"Hello Dad?" Her voice was soft for the phone line, disguising the fact that she had just been crying – her father believed that she was still in school.

"Alright Dad, yes, I'll stay home." She stopped for a moment, before she moved on and began questioning him as to what was going on with the people of the town, "What's happening Dad? Everyone's going slightly crazy."

There was a barked laugh at the other end of the phone before her father replied again, "Just a little crazy? They've all lost it more than they normally have! Just stay home, and don't go out. Leave your cell phone on…"

There was a pause in the conversation then as if the older Carter had discovered something before his voice started again, loud and worried, "In fact, turn it off, and turn your cell phone off!"

The commanding tone behind the words wasn't easy to miss so the blonde knew that this was something important, "Alright Dad." She whispered softly, "Just, come by soon and tell me what the hell is going on!"

"I will, I will…" The man replied softly, "Stay inside."

Flipping the small device closed the blonde haired girl shook her head and pressed the small, almost indistinguishable power button that resided on the top of the little piece of metal. The girl stood there for a moment, holding the little piece of metal before moving towards the sofa in the living room and lying down heavily, her head buried in the soft material of the pillows – her mind reeling at the thought of all that had happened in the previous thirty minutes. "SARAH, did she really kiss me?" The girl asked softly, turning her head to the side so that she was able to look at the flat screen television.

"Yes," The house replied gently, "Why, is that a problem Zoe?"

"I've been waiting for that kiss since I arrived in Eureka; but I always thought that it would be me surprising her." The blonde replied softly, turning onto her back so that she was staring at the ceiling. "I never thought that she'd be the one the kiss me first."

"There is someone at the door; it is your father, but I can't tell if he has been affected." The house spoke in its usual tone.

"Dim the lights, and give me five seconds before opening the door."

Zoe jumped up off the sofa and sped towards the mantle, upon which her father's signed baseball bat sat proudly. The young girl gripped the handle of it firmly, as she backed away towards where the kitchen was, the bat held out in front of her protectively, as if she was expecting to have to defend herself from something – with the people of Eureka acting like they currently were the blonde was sure that anything was possible.

"Zoe!"

Jack Carter's voice was loud, and his tone worried, which prompted the girl to think that whatever was affecting the people of Eureka he wasn't affected by it. "Zoe where are you?"

Slowly the blonde haired teenager approached where her father was standing, coming out of the shadows enough that he could see her but keeping the bat in front of her at the same time, she wasn't going to be going into this unprotected.

"Zoe! There you are!" The man exclaimed in relief, quickly moving towards the blonde and only stopping when she brought the bat up in front of her body, keeping him away from her. "Please not you too, Zoe…" The man sighed softly, his hands dropping down so that they were at his sides.

"Me? What about you?"

"I'm good, you?" The man said gently, eyeing the bat that his daughter held tightly within her hands, almost as if he didn't believe what she was saying and was just waiting for her to take a swing at him.

"Yeah…" The blonde haired girl trailed off, arching her eyebrow perfectly at the man as she pondered whether or not to believe him.

"Yeah," Jack nodded his head slightly, his hands held up in front of him defensively in case the blonde tried to take a swing at him.

"Prove it." The girl challenged.

It took Jack Carter a little under five seconds to recognise the fear that sounded in his daughter's voice as she contemplated the fact that he might not be who he said he was, or that he might have been effected by whatever it was that was going around Eureka. However at the same time he heard the belief behind her voice, the one that was telling her that he was perfectly fine and her father - the girl had just learned that the voice wasn't always right.

The man looked down at the bat that the girl held tightly within her hands, taking in the names that were written all it before looking up into the eyes that were so much like his own it was uncanny. "Put down my autographed World Series bat! Or else you'll be grounded 'til your thirty."

There was a sigh of relief that escaped the blonde girl's mouth before she let her shoulder's slump down and the bat fall into her father's outstretched hand; for her hearing him say that was enough for her to believe that he was her father. Never in her life had she ever seen someone more protective over a shaped piece of wood than her Dad.

"Oh thank God it's you..." The girl smiled brightly, "I was freaking out!"

"Are you alright?" Jack asked softly, following the girl over towards the sofa, taking in her dishevelled state, but not really knowing where it was from.

"Well considering everyone's gone schizo," Zoe began pausing for a second before she began to speak again, "The schools completely out of control; kids in fights, making out in the hallways, teachers apathetic!"

"So more like a normal school then?" Jack asked, placing the priceless bat back on the mantle before turning so that he was facing the blonde haired girl.

"Exactly," The girl exclaimed, "Weird huh?"

"We're both fine right, but why? What makes us so different?" The man smiled as he retreated into the kitchen – he was in dire need of something to drink, the day had just been too weird for even the Sheriff of the world's most advanced scientific community to be able to compute.

"We're from L.A.?" Zoe pondered softly, throwing out the idea before her father had even said his next words.

"That definitely sets us apart yeah," The Sheriff took a long gulp of the orange juice that SARAH had poured out for him – in truth he would have preferred beer, or at least something with alcohol, but he knew that he wasn't going to get it from the house as long as there was something strange going on, "But, we've been in town for a while, what makes us different now?"

Zoe nodded her head; yesterday at school everyone had been like they normally were, the teachers were strict and the students were hands off. Even the groups of friends barely touched on the school grounds, but almost as soon as she had arrived at school that morning the blonde had seen at least three different pairs of students kissing - and one group that she swore had more than two people.

"Maybe a massage would help clear your head so that you could think." SARAH interjected into the conversation, prompting a slightly peeved off response for the young blonde haired teen.

"Why don't you ever offer me a massage?"

"That's it…"

"A massage?" Zoe's eyebrow rose to her forehead as she watched her father.

For a moment the older Carter looked as if he was thinking before he jumped up and headed towards the door, "SARAH door."

"What? Where are you going?" The blonde exclaimed loudly, snapping her head around so that she could watch her father.

"Nowhere," The man replied distantly, staring at the door as it slid open, his ear pricked waiting for the hissing noise to start. "There." He murmured softly, a smile spreading over his lips, "SARAH door."

The door swung backwards, the gap getting smaller and smaller as the outside disappeared from view behind flat smooth metal. The hissing noise came again as the door was sealed shut, a lock inside it sliding into place making it impossible to open without the house's computerised commands. "That hissing sound, SARAH, is this bunker hermetically sealed?"

"Technically I'm a smart house, but yes."

"Where does our air come from?"

"I'm equipped with oxygen and carbon dioxide tanks in case of emergency; however most of your breathable air is filtered from the outside through a point one micron particle filter." SARAH answered quickly, a hint of what Zoe translated as pride showing in the smart house's voice.

"And I'm betting you keep track of every micron." Jack joked, a smile curving the very edges of his lips.

"Of course."

"I'm going to need an analysis and fast," Jack said first speaking to SARAH and then to Zoe, "Whatever happened, happened last night while we were sleeping."

"The only abnormality in the last twenty four hours is a spike in the pollen count, from eleven fifty three pm to six twenty three am, sunrise."

"Pollen…" Jack murmured softly, his eyes closing briefly in a moment of thought, "What type of pollen."

"Searching…" SARAH paused for a few seconds before she continued to speak, "It is exotic in nature it will take me some time to correlate that data."

The Sheriff glanced down at his watch, swearing under his breath before grabbing his jacket off the back of the sofa and making his way towards the door, "Well, you have about twenty minutes before it gets dark, so erm, SARAH door."

"Where are you going?" Zoe would have been embarrassed to admit it but she was scared of the prospect of being the only one left around the town that was thinking properly, she didn't want her father to go out there when there was a risk that he would lose it as well.

"Back where it started, stay here." Jack murmured softly, turning and racing out of the door. "You stay here."

Twenty minutes later the Sherriff pulled into the front of Seth's land, slamming the breaks onto his Jeep and sliding out of the door quickly. As soon as he had made it around the back of the man's house and was in the field of plants that the man had been tending to so studiously for the past couple of days – annoying the young geek out of his mind at the same time.

"Alright, I'm in," The Sheriff whispered into his phone, his eyes darting around in the darkness, "I got nothing, SARAH are you sure that it is a plant doing this?"

"The pollen filter registered positive for a pollen extract from the violaceace family."

Zoe listened down her end of the phone line as her father spoke, "Necrosomnium?"

"Yeah, what is that?" Jack exclaimed, the word striking a cord with him.

"According to the Eureka Quest search engine, it's Latin for…" Zoe paused, her eyebrows furrowing as she looked at the day, "Death Sleep."

"Of course it is, why, why would somebody plant that?"

"It says here that it can be used as an organic sedative, an alternative to regular anaesthesia, some varieties can alter brain chemistry," The girl clicked onto the next page, "There's a picture, do you see any purple flowers?" Her eyes glanced down at the next area of text as her father spoke again, "It says that hybrids don't always share the characteristics of the parent plant, so maybe a different colour…"

There was a soft exclamation as Jack spotted the flower opening, "Nope, it's purple, I've got to go."

Zoe spent the next hour or so sat by the phone waiting for the call from her father to tell her that everything had gone alright and he would be back in no time. In the end the girl was nodding off beside the phone waiting for the call when it came, "Dad?" She asked softly, rubbing her eyes as she tried to concentrate on the sound of the man's voice as he spoke.

"Yeah, we're good now, the plants are burning, and well… everyone now needs to be rounded up." The man's voice projected his exhaustion, and Zoe didn't blame him at all – the worrying had tired her out enough without actually having to do anything.

By the afternoon the next day everything was back to normal, Zoe was sat in the middle of the living room in the bunker half-heartedly watching the television. She was waiting for the moment that Jo remembered what she had done and came to apologise, and tell her that it meant nothing – she was waiting to get her heart ripped out of her chest.

There was a faint knock on the door, barely audible through the thick iron door before SARAH prompted the blonde, "Jo Lupo is at the door, do you want me to let her in?"

"Why not, this conversation was going to happen soon enough anyway, can you just not cut in please SARAH?" Zoe asked the house softly, her head downcast as she tried to prepare herself for what the brunette was going to say.

"As you wish," SARAH replied, opening the door for the brunette.

"Zoe?" Jo asked softly, stepping across the threshold, looking around the room for the normally bubbly teenager, finally she spotted her sat sedately on the sofa, watching as she approached, "Hey there."

"Hello," The blonde mumbled softly, glancing up and into the brunette's dark warm eyes before she broke their gaze and looked down at her lap – she couldn't be looking in the brunette's eyes when she broke her heart, otherwise she really would break.

Jo caught the glance though – she caught the saddened look in the blonde's eyes, and she saw the look of absolute love behind it as well, "I didn't come here for what you thought I did." She said softly, sitting down on the sofa beside the blonde. "I came to talk about why I'm glad that silly pollen altered my brain chemistry and allowed me to realise what I felt for you. I came to tell you and even if you might not love me, I love you."

"I love you too Jo," Zoe whispered softly, tears running down her cheeks as she listened to the brunette's words, "Are you, are you telling the truth?"

"Yes, I am." The brunette replied gently, leaning forward and pressing her forehead against the blonde's looking deeply into her eyes, showing the girl the swirling emptions that were playing through her own brown orbs, "I'm telling you the truth now Zoe."

"I just, can't believe it, I never thought. I never thought that you would return them," The blonde sobbed softly, wrapping her arms around the brunette's shoulders as she did so.

"That pollen allowed me to show my hidden impulses, I've watched to kiss you before, but I've never let myself do it, but because of that pollen I did." Jo whispered softly, stroking the young girl's back gently, pressing a kiss to the crown of her head and smiling. "I'm glad I did, because I don't know what I would have done if you had moved on with someone else."

"Can I have another kiss?" Zoe asked; her voice was small and tentative as she pulled away from the brunette, still expecting her to laugh and pull away as if it had all been a joke.

"Yes," Jo whispered softly, her eyes fluttering closed as she leaned forward.

The brunette left it up to the younger girl to press their lips together, but once Zoe had she wrapped the girl up in her arms, holding her tightly against her body. "I love you," She whispered softly into the kiss, smiling when the blonde returned her words, fingers tangling in her hair.

* * *

**I hope you enjoyed the story, thank you for reading.**


End file.
